THE RUSSIAN FUR-SEAL ISLANUS 
47 
of driftwood logs resting on pegs driven into tlie gronnd, as shown in the aceonipaiiy- 
iug photograph (pi. 40/>). The upper end of these stairs (08 feet above the sea) enters 
the little creek mentioned above and the driveway proceeds up the narrow valley. 
The kettle-shaped upper end of the valley, the sides of which form a slope of about 
40 degrees, is separated from a similar kettle on the north side by a narrow saddle. 
This pass I have determined to be 043 feet.’ The descent is steep, but not so high as 
on the south side, and the driveway now follows the bed of the little creek, as the 
narrow V-shaped valley affords no other road. The lower end of the drive, after it 
enters the grass-covered sandy jdain back of the Karabelni village, where the killing- 
grounds are situated, is comparatively easy. 
The salt-house was formerly situated at the front of the village, east of the river 
and of the large rock in the bay called Urili Kamen. The beach there is not very 
safe or convenient for loading the skins into the boats or landing tlie salt, for which 
reason a new one has been built at Popo/sAoi, the small “bay” ju.st west of Urili 
Kanien (pi. 63a). 
From Vodopad the driveway, if it is deemed necessary to take the meat to the 
village, is longer by at least a mile over the high plateau northeast of the rookery, 
besides being very severe in other respects. The grassy slopes of the valley opening 
at this point are very slippery and steep (about 30°), but the greatest hardship is 
caused by the exceedingly difficult ascent of the bluff before reaching the valley. 
The bluff here consists of the naked hard rock, and consequently stej)S built of drift- 
wood logs, as at Stolbovaya Bukhta, were out of the (piestion. They had to be roughly 
cut out of the rock itself, as shown in the accompanying photograph (pi. 45), which 
will give a better idea of this extraordinary place than any description. It wall be 
seen that the side next to the picturesque waterfall is nearly i>erpendicular, in tact so 
steep that the men can not follow the drive up on that side in order to urge the seals 
on and to prevent them from going down over the preciiiiee. To remedy this a rope 
is stretched from the top down to the beach, as is jilainly shown in the lohotograph to 
the right of the fall. When seals are driven, rags and scraps of paper are fastened 
to this rope, which is kept in constant motion so as to frighten them and urge them on. 
It is hardly to be wondered at that the men prefer to let the seals carry their own 
skins up this road. The to]> of these stairs is 65 feet above the sea, and I found it 
pretty hard work to climb it without carrying anything. 
At Krepkaya Pad and at Malinka Bukhta there is no jiossibility of getting the 
seals up alive; hence tliey were killed back from the beach and their skins carried 
across the mountains. At Krepkaya Pad the men alone did the killing and carrying, 
while Malinka Bukhta was reserved for the women, who did all the skinning and 
carried the skins to the salt-house. Malinka Bukhta is reached along the beach from 
Serodka, but between it and Krepkaya Pad there is a Neprojmslc which can not be 
passed. 
The appended map of Karabelnoye rookery (pi. 0), was made in 1883, Jirly 3 to 
10. The angles were taken with an azimuth compass and the distance measured with 
pediometer. lu 1895 my stay at the rookery was too short to make an independent 
plane-table survey, but a blue-x)rint of the old sketch was placed on the table and a 
few necessary corrections made. A series of photographs taken at the time have also 
been used in verifying it. 
* Average of 6 ohservations ou July 3 to 8, 1883. 
